Pumpkins!

This was our third year going to this pumpkin patch, and each time, what I remember most is the heat! You'd think by the third year I'd expect it to be hot... but for some reason I just associate pumpkins with fall and fall with cool weather.. hmm not in the central valley! We had a great time this time with just our little family. The boys loved running and getting all sweaty. They especially loved picking the pumpkins they were going to get to carve. It was fun that Cam actually understood that if we were going to make a "pumpkin family" we had to take the size of the pumpkins into consideration. We started with baby K's pumpkin, obviously that one would be the smallest, and worked our way up from there. He is such a smart little guy, he got it, no problem!

Running through the pumpkin patch and sun flowers


Ander peaking out of the teepee


My 3 handsome men!


I kept trying to have the boys take a picture with the sunflowers but I kid you not, every single one had a few of these creatures in the middle of them.. So I took a picture of the bee's instead


Cam finding an appropriate size pumpkin to represent him in our "pumpkin family"


Ander either doesn't get what we are trying to do or thinks he's much bigger than he is.. probably both


At the top of the pumpkin stack.. When did my baby boy turn into a big boy?


Taking our great finds to the car


Time to carve pumpkins! Cam drawing his face on his pumpkin so dad could cut it out... needless to say this was more for his sake than Brian's


Ander was not very interested in the pumpkin carving... the fly swatter however.. that was a big hit...


Our finished "pumpkin family"


Ander still not very interested


And here we are all lit up!


I love this picture because even though he's been getting the lyrics mixed up, Cam has been singing "This little light of mine" to himself a lot! I'm sure there's a lot of history behind pumpkin carving, and i'm sure any one can relate it back to whatever they want.. When I was little I told my first grade class that halloween was the devils birthday... Opposite of Christmas right? haha Well, our kids are going to relate pumpkin carving to Matthew 5:16 "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds, and praise your father in heaven." Look how bright these pumpkins shine, is our light shinning for Jesus every day?

Scarf and Jewelry organization

So a few days ago I gave in and joined Pinterest. I was quick to fill my boards with projects I wanted to do. Brian asked me when I planned on doing all of these things and my first response was, "Christmas Break". To our surprise I've already finished two of my "pins" only a few days later. All it took was a free Friday night and a quick visit to the new Hobby Lobby in town.

The first project I did was a scarf organizer. It was supposed to be way cooler than it was. Pretty much I thought I would be able to roll my scarfs and tuck them in shower curtain rings laced together and hanging from a hanger. It all was going great until it came time to roll the scarfs and I realized, no matter how hard I tried, there was no way I was going to get my scarfs to fit into that small of a circle. So instead I draped my scarfs through the holes and let them hang. It works well and still is a great way to organize my scarfs but its not nearly as "neat" as what I was hoping for.

This is what I was thinking it was going to be able to do...


This is what I made that was supposed to be able to let me store my scarfs like the above...


Only one of my 13 scarfs actually fit through the hole the way I was wanting it to. All the others weren't even close to being able to. So now they are all just draped through each one.. not as cute as the rolled version but it will do.


The second project however was a huge success. I made a jewelry organizer and I love it! Before I had all of my jewelry in one of those hanging organizers with pockets. It worked well but It was hard to remember what I had because it always got stuffed back in pockets and I had to double up on pockets in order to fit everything. I wore my favorites all the time but I forgot how much other stuff I had until I started pulling it all out and sorting through it.

This is how I am now storing my jewelry. I love it!



It was super easy and pretty affordable. I got all of my materials at Hobby Lobby,
here is what I used:

Stuff I bought at Hobby Lobby:
A backless, empty frame.... $15.99
Screw in cup hooks, 4 packs of 6... $7.96
A 13"x22" sheet of plastic canvas ... $1.89
(this is a sturdy plastic plastic sheet with lots of little holes)

All for a grand total of $25.84 (before tax)

Stuff I already had:
Drill with small drill bit
Ribbon
Staple Gun

This project was a success!!! I still use my pocket hanging organizer for all of my bracelets. It's prefect for that.